In 2008 and 2009, Marvel produced 11 webcomics starring different characters under the umbrella title Astonishing Tales. Several stories were reprinted in the six-issue miniseriesAstonishing Tales vol. 2 (April-Sept. 2009).

"Ka-Zar" was initially by the longstanding and highly influential team of writer and Marvel editor-in-chief Stan Lee and penciler and co-plotter Jack Kirby, the duo who had introduced the jungle lord years before as a one-issue supporting character in The X-Men. Ka-Zar had since guest-starred in Daredevil and in other series before gaining his first solo feature here. After that initial story, Roy Thomas scripted the second installment, with the team of writer Gerry Conway and penciler Barry Windsor-Smith taking over for issues #3-6.[3] Thomas and signature Hulk artist Herb Trimpe teamed for the next two issues, with Thomas abetted by Mike Friedrich on the latter. Astonishing Tales then starred Ka-Zar solely in stories ranging from 16 to 21 pages each.[1]

Bobbi Morse first appeared in the Ka-Zar story in Astonishing Tales #6 (June 1971)[4] and would later become the superheroine Mockingbird.[5] Joshua Link was introduced in Astonishing Tales #8[6] and later became the supervillain Gemini[7] of Zodiac. Issues #12 and #13 introduced Man-Thing to color comics, as a Ka-Zar antagonist. Issue #14 featured a censored color reprint of the black-and-white Ka-Zar tale in the comics magazine Savage Tales #1 (May 1971). Two issues contained backup-feature reprints of 1950s jungle stories from Marvel predecessor Atlas Comics: Two stories from Lorna the Jungle Girl #14 (July 1955) in Astonishing Tales #9, and a Jann of the Jungle story from Jungle Tales #2 (Nov. 1954), in Astonishing Tales #14.[1]

The final feature in Astonishing Tales starred and introduced Deathlok, a conflicted cyborg who predated the popular movie character RoboCop by several years and has become one of the most enduring Marvel characters among those introduced in the 1970s; at least two major iterations of the character, featuring different individuals, starred in series in the 1990s and 2000s. Created by artist Rich Buckler, who devised the initial concept, and writer Doug Moench,[10] the feature ran from #25-28 and 30-36 (Aug. 1974 - Feb. 1975 and June 1975 - July 1976), the final issue. Bill Mantlo scripted issues #32-35, with Buckler himself scripting the finale.[1] Buckler described Deathlok as "an extension of a paranoid fantasy. He was a representation of part of my outlook and world view. He was a culmination of many of the messages in some of the music of the time. He was part of some of the things going wrong in our country at the time. Maybe he was the science that was going wrong.[11] Artist George Pérez made his professional comics debut with a two-page backup feature in issue #25.[12]

^Sanderson, Peter; Gilbert, Laura, ed. (2008). "1970s". Marvel Chronicle A Year by Year History. London, United Kingdom: Dorling Kindersley. p. 146. ISBN978-0756641238. Marvel's second split book of 1970 gave two longtime Marvel stars their own series. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby collaborated on the first installment of the new series starring Ka-Zar...Marvel's greatest villain, Dr. Doom, also received his own series, scripted by Roy Thomas and drawn...[by] Wally Wood.